Obolos 6

THRACE, Local Dynasts. Dixazelmeus, Mid to late 2nd century BC (?). Dichalkous (?) (Bronze, 17mm, 6.57 g 1). Laureate head of Apollo to right. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΙΧΑZΕΛΜΕΩΣ Large amphora. SNG BM -. SNG Copenhagen -. SNG Stancomb -. Apparently unpublished and unique. Rough surfaces with some spots of corrosion, otherwise, very fine.

From a Swiss collection, formed before 2000.

Dixazelmeus was a Thracian Dynast of whom virtually nothing is known. His extremely rare coinage is usually dated to 75-50 BC, a date that seems rather late for the style and the fabrique of the flans. In fact, Evgeni I. Paunov has recently argued that Dixazelmeus was the predecessor of Mostis, a Dynast whose reign can safely be dated not later than the last quarter of the 2nd Century BC (Evgeni I. Paunov: The Coinage of the Thracian King Mostis, in: Proceedings of the First International Congress of the Anatolian Monetary History and Numismatics, Antalya, 25-28 February 2013, p. 457 ff). This would place Dixazelmeus in the mid 2nd Century. Only six coins in his name have been published to date: Two in the BM, one in the ANS, one recorded by Moushmov, and two offered by Gorny & Mosch as lot 128 in their auction 207 of 2012, and recently, in 2016, as lot 1296 in auction 241. Our coin appears to be a hitherto unpublished, larger denomination: not only is it considerably heavier than all the other specimens, it is also the only coin with a laureate head of Apollo on the obverse rather than the usual head of a youthful Dionysos with an ivy-wreath.